Geithner: Our Way Or The Cliff!

Timothy Geithner --- Arrogant?

by Gary Bauer: For all the talk about the need for bi-partisan compromise on the fiscal cliff (just 25 days away), Democrats have become as stubbornly inflexible as, well, a donkey. Obama has staked out his position -- tax rates must go up -- and he is refusing to budge.

Yesterday Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was interviewed on CNBC. Consider this exchange:CNBC: "When it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy … if Republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff?"

Geithner: "Oh, absolutely. There's no prospect in an agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2 percent of the wealthiest."In other words, it's Obama's way or the highway, and 90% of American households will face an average $3,500 tax increase.

Whenever a Republican takes a stand against raising tax rates, media commentators fly into hysterical reactions about how uncompromising conservatives are hurting the poor, the middle class and putting the economy at risk for their narrow ideological agenda. But whenever Obama or Geithner adopt such hardline positions, the liberal commentators usually nod approvingly and move on.

By the way, congressional Democrats evidently aren't too keen on Barack Obama's proposal either. Yesterday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell tried to put Obama's "ridiculous" fiscal cliff proposal on the Senate floor for a vote. Guess what happened? Harry Reid objected and refused to allow the vote!

My friends, here is a key fact to keep in mind as this debate drags on: Republicans have already made a good faith offer. They agreed to $800 billion in additional revenue through tax reform measures. That is a huge concession for the party of lower taxes, less spending and smaller government. But it's not enough for Barack Obama and other Democrats like former DNC Chairman Dr. Howard Dean.

As we have explained repeatedly, raising taxes on the so-called "rich" doesn't solve the problem. The problem is that government is simply too big and spending too much. I was reminded today that all the talk about marginal tax rates misses the point. We should be talking about real tax rates -- the taxes required to pay the real costs of big government.

Obama's tax increases on the rich amount to $80 billion a year, when he's running deficits of $1,000 billion a year. As Thomas Sowell put it, "Raising the tax rates on everybody in the top 2% will not get enough additional tax revenue to run the government for 10 days. And what will the government do to pay for the other 355 days in the year?"

Howard Dean has his solution: He wants to go over the fiscal cliff in order to raise everybody's taxes! Here's what he said on MSNBC last night:"The truth is everybody needs to pay more taxes, not just the rich. … we're not going to get out of this deficit problem unless we raise taxes across the board... And if we don't do that, the problem is the pressure is going to be on spending even more."Unfortunately, Dr. Dean's prescription still doesn't pay for the real cost of big government. But he may have just spilled the beans as to Obama's real goal in this fiscal cliff showdown.

Obama really doesn't want a deal. That's why he is making laughable offers he knows Boehner can't accept, while rejecting proposals he said he wanted last year.

Obama wants the revenues from the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts, but he needs to make sure Democrats don't get blamed for raising your taxes. So far, the polls indicate he is succeeding.
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Gary Bauer is is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Tags: Tim Geithner, Howard Dean, Barack Obama, fiscal cliff, higher taxes, Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!